Alessandria
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Alexander the Oreat In 1401 the .Tcwisli qimrtcr rest of the city. l)y
was
Tiumrlimc
pilliigcd, with the ami a Jcwisli saint
tlicrc aftor a fast of scvi'ii montlis. In th<> sixteenth cenliiry Samuel Laniado ben Al)nihatn and in the seventeenlli centuiy Hayyini Cohen ben The " Mi'kor At)iiiliain weie repiisentative authors. Mayyini" of the hitler was published at Constan tiuople in KM!), and at Amsterdam liy Meiiasseh Other Aleppo worthies are Is;iae lien Isiaelin Uiol). ilieii
I.opes ill Itiill). Isjiae ]5eiakaii in Ilie eii;hteentli eentury. and Isaac Athia about IHIO. For four eenturies the Jews of Cocliin (India) liave Wes Ijeen in close relation with those of Aleppo. sely, in his edition of Farrisol's travels, jmblishes as an appendix a letter by Ezekiel IJechabi to Tobias Boas, lelalinir liow his fiitlier came tot'ochin in I(i4(>. Aleppo was in touch with Italy as well as with Many Aleppo books were published in Italy India. notably the ritual of the Aleppo .b'ws. recently discovered bv A, Berliner and described in his "Aus Meiner Biiiliothek." E. N. A.
ALESSANDRIA:
Fortitied town, situated in a province of thi' same name, in northern Italy, and founded, in IKiS. by citizens from Crcmfina, Milan, The earliest mention of a Hebrew and I'iacenza. community in Alessandria occiiis in the last years of the tifteentli century, after the I'-xpulsion of the .Tews from Spain, when the name of a certain Clemens (Kalonymus) Cohen Vitali of Valencia Early ap])ears in the city records as one of
History,
when
it fell
the
lirst
Jewish
settlers.
Ales.saudria
was then a dipendencv of Milan, and into the hands of Charles V, the Jews
soon resented his intolerant treatment. Jose])li haKohen narrates, in his" 'Emek ha Haka. that, in l.").",
when
the in((uisitor confiscated a nundierof Hebrew books thoujrh they contained not liiiiij; objectionable and at the ssimc time demanded a lar.ire sum for their re<leniption. the Jews of Alessandria petitioned the duke of Scssji. irovernor of Jlilan, to cause the return of their jiroperty. The ihd<e immediately ordered that restitution be made. By conmiand of Philip II. of Spain, the ,trovernor of .Milan was ili reeled to expel the Jews from that duchy in loGO, but no attempt was made to carry out the decree till About this time Rabbi Samuel Cohen of Ales1502. sandria went to Spain to jietition the kin.;: in behalf of his oi)|ircssed coiclifrionists. lie siiceeeded in interestin>; many influential jiersons at court and even gained the favor of Pliili]) II. himself, who aimulled Notwith the decree of expulsion issued in l.")()f). standin.sr this, in l.")97 there remained in the dvuhy of Milan oidy two Jewish fainilii'S at Cremona, and about as many at Lodi and Alessandria, whereas pre viously the Jewish popidation of these cities had reached 4.'in at Cremona. 13(1 at Lodi. and 103 at Ales Siindria. 'I'houifh numerically insiirnitieant, tin' J<-ws of Alessiindria can not be considereil uniin|iorlant. Gedaliah ibn Val.iyah sjient mueh of his time in Alessan<lria between ihe y<'ars l.'iTGand l.")H.), and it was in this city that he bejrau to write several of his works (see his "Shalshelct ha-Kabbalah," cd. Venice, pp.
—
—
ening to besiege.
340 The duke
intercepted the
Jew and
tried to bribe him to destroy idl Ihe powder in the fortress. The Jew prelendeil to accept the duke's proposition, but as soon as he gained Ihe city he dis closed the whole jilot to the otlicials (see "Efetneridi .Vlessandriin." July 14.1047. reprinted in "Educatore Israelitico" for IsHh),
Freed from Ihe Spanish yoke in 1706. Ale.ssjindria became a jiart of Sardinia, oidy to be plunged into a still more deplorable condition imtil 1M4.S, when, by the decree of March 'Ji(. civil rights were accorded to Ihe .lews of Alessandria, and they were adnnlted even to Ihe army and public service.
The
nsimes. with outlines of Ihe achievements, of rabbis of Alessandria, are as follows: (1) Josejih b. Michael H.iveiuni. who Rabbis of nourished in the seventeenth century. Aleswas an authorily on the Jewish ritual sandria. aial an accomplished Hebrew poet. He is also credited with a respimsiim inserted in Lampronti's "Pahad Vizliak." under Ihe article " Keriat .^efer Torali." written about 1041. Zunz mentions him in his " Literaturgesehichte. p. 444. but as the author of a jiiziiinit. or liturgical poeni. The date 1701, given by him. refers to the edition of the pizmon, and not to Joseph's rabbinate, (2) lieiijarnin Cohi-n, rabbi of Heggio. was a native of Alessandria, and became rabbi in the latter city in UuTi he continued in ollice till called to Keggi(") in 1682, (3) Joel Uzziel ben H. Nathan Pincherle. rabbi of Alessiindria in 1714 (.see "Mill.iamah laAdonai"), resided there with his father in 1729(see Hichi." Adderet Eliyahu," part ii ). One of his ritual decisions on Ufilliii (pbylacterii's) which aiijieared in Mor]iur,!ro's respoii.sa (1716) is also found in the
the various
' Pahad Vizliak " of Lampronli. After Pineherle.the distinguished family of Levi de Veali held the rah binieal office in Alessandria, son succeeding father for several generations. (4) Eli.jah. son of Raphael Solomon, was the first to adopt Ihe name of I)e Veali. and held thi' oltice of rabbi from 1738 to 17!(2. Nepi eulogizes him. and cites his works. (.5) Moses Zacuto. son of Elijah, occupied the labbinati' of Alessandria for twenty years. In 1812 the consistory of Paris elected him rabbi in Casale Jlonferrato (see L Delia Torre. "Tal Yaldut." kj 2.j). (6) Mattathias On di Moses Zacnto sueeeeded his father in 1812. 183.">. together with 47 persons, including June Kabbi Haphael Aniar. he perished in the collapse of a building during a wedding celebration. (7) Elijah, son and successor of Mattathias (1830-80). was esteemed by C. Ii. de Hossi. He was created a knight of the crown of Italy. During the last two decades the community of Alessandria has grown steadily smaller, and in 1900 numbered only 370 souls. Its members observe the Italian ritual, and siijiport several religious and char.").
itable institutions. .losepti tia-Kolien, ^Emekha-Baka: KfemerUli AUi'siinilriiii, .Iiilv 14. 11147, in E<lucfitiirc Ixraelitici), 185S: Istntctiinie r AUruitlitntr pfr uJi Hi:1trci flelUi Stato (H Mih'iin. ill. istc. p. tii:!. Nepi-(;iilroncli. Tokdot Gednlc Yinnirl. 11, V~.i: Zmiz. Utrrnlurtn'sfh. p. 4-t4.
BiBLiocRAPIiv
G. J.
67. 68).
known
of the later residents of this community beyond the fact that about the midiUe of the seventeenth century the city of Alessandria owed its S!ifely to the loyalty of a Jew. who Later had discovered a new |)idcess of reHistory, lininsr .irunpowder which economized its use. As a result of his di.scovery. he was summoned to Ales.S!indria so that his inven tion might be used in the defense of the city, which the French, under the duke of Modena. wei-e threatLittle is
ALETRINO, ARNOLD: A
Dutch physician
and professor of criminal
aiilliro|iology at the University of Amsterdam: also serveil ollicially as surgeon to the city police and fire departments; born in Amsterdam. Ajiril 1. 18.')8. lie is fine of the leaders,
in comiiany with Professors Winkler and Jelgersma. in the Dutch school of anthropology which follows methods quite distinct from llie French and Italian scientists. He contributed the following articles to the " Psvchologischc en Neuralgiselie Bladen":
